Rosemont’s Life Enrichment Director pulls from a variety of professional and life experiences to bring new ideas and a vibrant spirit to residents and fellow team members each day.

Brenda Torres-Wells has always had a keen eye and the passion to assist in the community around her, no matter where it may be.

As a teenager in her native Manhattan, Brenda noticed something she hadn’t seen anywhere else in the Big Apple. In her neighborhood, trash was piling up on the streets and there seemed to be no end in sight.

“I said to my sister, ‘We’ve got to make a difference here. This is disgusting. This is horrible,’” Brenda recalled.

Never shy, Brenda, then 14, went to her local city councilwoman on behalf of the neighborhood. The councilwoman listened and gave Brenda a project: walk the around area and find what could be factors leading to the trash buildup.

Brenda took the assignment to heart and walked up and down the neighborhood. That keen eye of hers noticed something – there was a lack of garbage cans in her neighborhood.

“The councilwoman was impressed with our work and it began a relationship that lasts today and that trust was really the beginning of all this.”

And “all this” has helped carve Brenda’s path to Rosemont, where she is the community’s Life Enrichment Director. In this role, Brenda engages the residents in recreational therapies of all types, including art, music, aroma oils and vibrant uses of color pallets, among numerous other practices.

“God brought me here for a purpose,” Brenda said of Rosemont. “I’ve been able to bring ideas to life and I’ve had the support of ideas from my team. … I practice what I preach.

“This is about a beginning for my residents. That they transition to this community at Rosemont and it’s a door opening. Let’s open up with all the possibilities if you’re willing to invite them in. I want the residents to develop ideas. I’m here for them to help pull the ideas out. That’s the key.”

All throughout her life, Brenda has never limited herself and has always had a willingness to listen and learn. She has dipped her toes into professional dancing, party planning, music producing and political activism, just to name a few things.

And from each of those experiences, she has pulled something that helps her make a difference at Rosemont each day. Take the dancing, for example.

Brenda came to Rosemont five years ago with a wealth of heralded experience. In her 19 years with her former employer in New York, Brenda won two LeadingAge awards and was an American Medical Director’s Award winner.

Though she now resides in the Philadelphia area with her husband, Brenda retains a home in Brooklyn and is still very active socially and remains well-connected in New York. While attending a recent political inauguration there as an invited guest, Brenda was introduced to a U.N. representative from India who had heard about her work.

She could have never anticipated what happened next – he invited her to a U.N. committee hearing and, to this day, Brenda remains an active part of the committee, participating in meetings at the U.N headquarters in New York.

Brenda’s vibrant spirit and work ethic has become an everyday part of life at Rosemont. She has been recognized by her peers at Rosemont and across the Presby organization for her exceptional work and was honored this year with a Distinguished Service Award nomination.